Warm Winter Weather Confuses SoCal Crops

Southern California has not received the winter weather that citrus growers wanted.

“A normal winter is cold and somewhat wet,” said crop manager Robert Bonnett. “Not 85 degrees for a week and a half.”

For crops all over the SoCal area, it’s a classic case of crop confusion. Fruit trees are blooming more than a month early; bad timing with the threat of overnight frost looming.

“We have an early bloom and now we have a frost warning,” explains Peggy Mauk, a professor at University of California Riverside.

“The bloom is likely to get hit,” and that, she says, could mean no fruit or bland-tasting fruit.

“They're confused,” Mauk said. “Winter should be cold, trees dormant, just more normal.”

In some cases, like the early blooming of avocado trees, a freeze could devastate a crop and would force prices up.

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